The Spaces of Irish Drama - by H Lojek (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Contemporary Irish drama communicates not only through words but also through the non-verbal use of space - both the geographical places in which plays are set and the ways stage space is used. The work of cultural and physical geographers, brought to bear on plays by Friel, McPherson, Carr, and McGuinness, illuminates the extent to which perceptions of themes and characters are determined by the plays' uses of space. The plays shape reactions to issues of belonging and not belonging, home and homeland, by locating characters in specific places and by establishing stage spaces that inform perceptions of both Irish characters and Irish locales"--

Book Synopsis

Lojek provides extensive analysis of space in plays by living Irish playwrights, applying practical understandings of staging and the insights of geographers and spatial theorists to drama in an era increasingly aware of space.

Review Quotes

"Though Lojek's focus is narrow, this systematic analysis can be extended to a range of plays in an increasingly global world of contemporary drama. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers." - CHOICE

"Timely in its choice of topic and written in a jargon-free, readable style, the book will appeal to a general readership with an interest in developments in contemporary Irish theatre and culture at large . . . All in all, The Spaces of Irish Drama is a readable book that whets one's appetite for a study of contemporary Irish theatre that releases the full potential of an integration of geographical theory, performance theory and recent work on spectatorship." - Journal of Contemporary Drama in English

"The subject of space is at the cutting edge of critical discourse on contemporary Irish drama and theatre. Lojek's deeply researched, fluently written, and probing study puts her at the forefront of such investigations. Instead of a fixed, immutable Ireland, she uncovers in four canonical contemporary plays a series of multiple, fluid, and accommodating spaces in both the public and private spheres." - Anthony Roche, author of Contemporary Irish Drama and Brian Friel: Theatre and Politics

"With an astute understanding of the territory of Irish drama, Lojek opens up the discussion of theatrical space, from intimate interiors to public places, in an intelligent and readable book that illuminatesthe ways in which Brian Friel, Conor McPherson, Marina Carr, and Frank McGuinness create 'a country of the mind'. By concentrating on four plays, this book presents an in-depth, local argument with a national reach, decoding space as both a metaphor and a reality on the Irish stage." - Emilie Pine, author of The Politics of Irish Memory: Performing Remembrance in Contemporary Irish Culture and assistant editor of the Irish University Review

"A timely and significant study. Each of the four main chapters explores one play in depth under the polyvalent rubric of 'space', literal and metaphoric, theatrical and extra-theatrical, landscape, and mimesis. This rich and diverse term here raises issues equally rich and varied, among them history and identity, home and belonging, gender and social status, and Lojek is alive both to all that's going on in each text and outside of it. By focusing on a central dynamic her selection of plays provides in little a masterly examination of contemporary Irish drama and opens in the reader's mind new spaces for further study." - Christopher Murray, author of Twentieth-Century Irish Drama: Mirror Up to Nation

About the Author

HELEN HEUSNER LOJEK Professor Emeritus of English and Associate Dean (retired) of the College of Arts and Sciences at Boise State University, USA.